Another reason to give up chocolate for Lent
Few things focus the mind better than that daily effort to take the long way around the vending machine.
This time last year, a Christian web site tracked people’s Lenten sacrifices, as described in their Twitter feeds. Some of the postings were tongue-in-cheek, with ‘school’ leading the way and ‘Lent’ itself making the Top 10. More predictable options, like ‘alcohol’, ‘swearing’ and ‘Twitter’ were also high on the list.
At World Vision, we were quick to notice ‘chocolate’ in the second spot, a favorite sacrifice for many believers during Lent. Few things focus the mind better than that daily effort to take the long way around the vending machine, purposefully leaving our pocket change at our desks.
But sacrificing chocolate holds the potential to do more than just sharpen the discipline and trim the waistline. It can deepen our Lenten journey in a truly meaningful way. While some see Lent as a time to cleanse our lives of impurities, others find it’s a time to think deeply about a world in desperate need. As Pope Francis put it, “Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy.”
When it comes to chocolate, we’ve been both lethargic – and unaware. Working at World Vision, we know that much of the chocolate we enjoy outside of Lent comes to us at the expense of children, God’s most innocent and beloved creations.
Some 2 million children worldwide are forced into dangerous work on cocoa plantations, mostly in West Africa. Many are abducted from their homes, have no contact with their families, and work for promised pay which never comes. They’re forced to climb trees with sharp machetes to cut down the raw ingredients of our mid-afternoon snacks. Many are exposed to dangerous chemicals without wearing any protective gear, and abused by the adults who command them. Such work leaves no time to go to school, meaning their lives will be forever affected.
It’s easy to feel so guilty that we put these children out of our minds -- or avoid chocolate altogether. But that wouldn’t be truly helping children. On some level, Lent is meant to be about more than just deprivation and sacrifice. It’s about thought, prayer and growth.
Chocolate may not be on your Lenten list at all, or you may not even care for it. But we can all give a minute to help hasten the coming of a world where children’s childhoods are as God meant them to be – free from the abuse that steals their innocence. Where the products we consume daily can confidently be stamped: ‘this product is free from child-labour.’
So please pray for these children. Once Lent is over, consider buying chocolate that’s certified as fair trade. You’ll be contributing to building stronger communities and more prosperous families in the areas where cocoa farming takes place, reducing the need for child labour.
Also, please take a minute to help free Easter itself from the taint of child labour, by asking the Cadbury chocolate company to offer Canadians more ethical products, including a Fairtrade Easter Egg. Similar pressure in Australia led Cadbury to offer a Fairtrade egg there, so we know we can make a difference.
If your Lenten journey leads you toward an interest in freeing children everywhere from hazardous work, I invite you to learn more about World Vision’s No Child for Sale campaign. It gives Canadians a chance to express their support for a world free of abusive child labour, whether in cocoa production, garments, cell phones or so many of the products available in our stores. We’re working to bring greater transparency in the complex supply chains which connect Canadian companies to child labourers overseas.
Somewhere between the trivial and the spiritual, the Lenten practice of giving something up holds a profound truth. Chocolate may have a role to play.
Doug Blackburn is the Church Advocacy Engagement Manager for World Vision Canada
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